There’s Already A Huge Gold Rush To Fill The Apple Watch With Ads — But Don’t Believe The Hype (Yet)

TapSense said its Apple Watch ads could look like this. But the company later acknowledged Apple might not be able to let it serve ads to the Apple Watch at all. TapSense

We don't even know the exact release date for the Apple Watch (we understand it's due in March), but already advertising vendors are proudly boasting they will be offering marketers the chance to place ads and other sorts of marketing messages on the device.

The latest such vendor is InMarket, a mobile marketing platform that specializes in in-store beacon communications. The company told Adweek it had partnered with Marsh Supermarkets to target beacon messages to Apple Watch users who use the US grocery chain's app with recipe suggestions and offers when they are inside one of its 75 stores.

However, there are a few caveats to this announcement and, indeed, all announcements purporting to offer what appears to be Apple Watch advertising ahead of the smartwatch's launch date.

The Apple Watch SDK Is Out, But It's Scant On Detail About Ads

Apple has released the WatchKit software development kit (SDK), which allows developers to build applications tailored to the Apple Watch. Technically, using WatchKit, app developers could then insert ads into those apps, too.

However, any Watch application will be subject to Apple's strict approval process — it won't just be a case of simply porting an iPhone app over to the Watch — and the SDK itself is still in beta and subject to change.

The Apple Watch is also set to be the most personal piece of Apple software you own. It is on display at all time on your wrist, and while that tiny screen could be a highly prized piece of advertising real estate, Apple is unlikely to allow its high-end device to be commandeered by ads that could detract from the overall user experience. Just look at Apple's HealthKit fitness monitoring ad: As AdExchanger pointed out last year, Apple's app-store guidelines explicitly ban apps from using user data gathered from the HealthKit API for ads.

"If it feels like your smart watch is turning into a spam box, you will take it off," Padden Guy Murphy, who heads business development and public policy at the car-sharing service Getaround, told Reuters earlier this month.

Remember, Apple Has Its Own Advertising Platform In iAd

In the background, Apple has been ramping up its investment and focus in its own advertising platform iAd in recent months.

But it is worth reiterating that Apple has released no details on plans to announce any type of advertising on Apple Watch. And if Apple does have ads planned, it is likely those ads will be rolled out on a very limited basis at launch. Apple TV still doesn't have in-app ads, for example, and the first generation of that product launched in 2007.

Apple Watch Ad Announcements Are Good PR But Are Couched With Uncertainty

Announcements from ad vendors and analyses into the potential of Apple Watch for advertisers tend to be seriously couched with words like "could," "potential," and "may" (even this one!). In short, Apple has barely released any information about Apple Watch ad integration yet, so most people are making educated guesses.

The clarification read: "Both Apple's WatchKit SDK and the TapSense SDK are in Beta and APIs are subject to change. As and when Apple makes the WatchKit guidelines available, we will review it carefully to ensure our SDK is both in compliance and approved by Apple. Couple clarifications and corrections:

* We're announcing a programmatic platform which will allow you to have your ads displayed on Apple Watch * The post inaccurately mentions support for watch faces. Currently, the WatchKit SDK doesn't provide developer access to watch faces. * Although Apple Pay integration with Apple Watch is a great convenience for the consumer, TapSense SDK will not integrate directly with Apple Pay. To redeem a coupon from an ad, it would need to have a readable barcode that can be scanned at the point of sale, or the ad could be added to Passbook and then delivered to Apple Watch to be redeemed.

So expect plenty more announcements purporting to offer Apple Watch ads as we get closer to launch and the Apple hype machine kicks into overdrive. But unless Apple officially releases more information about Apple Watch ad integration and APIs, treat those press releases with skepticism. Yes, those vendors are preparing for numerous scenarios, but we still don't know the full picture yet.

(UPDATE 01/14/15) TapSense CEO Ash Kumar sent us this email in response to a request for comment:

Here is my perspective - TapSense is a technology company and we always innovate around experiences and ad formats which could enhance consumer and brand interactions in a meaningful way. We were THE first platform to offer a unique ad format when iOS 6 was still in beta to make user's and developer's experience better.

Now everyone including Facebook uses this format. With the Watch platform, we think there is similar opportunity to change the perception of advertising and make it more contextual and engaging. Our release clearly stated that our platform will only work when other apps integrated our SDK. However, it got misinterpreted somehow that we are pushing ads directly to the Watch, which is not true and is not our intent either.

We carefully looked at WatchKit SDK policies and comply with existing SDK guidelines. We are not policy makers and Apple has yet to come out publicly with official guidelines so hope to work with their team on this. Apple certainly cares about their developers and users, so I am confident that they will come up with a good guidelines framework.